Miscellaneous: Oscar Grice, 1927, Winn Parish, LA
Submitted by Greggory E. Davies, 120 Ted Price Lane, Winnfield, LA 71483
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From: January 27, 1927 Winn Parish Enterprise

Winn Parish Boy Making A Name In U. S. Immigration Service

The Sunday Miami (Fla.) News carries the picture with a writeup of Oscar
Grice, a Winn Parish boy who is head of the United States Border Patrol at
Homestead, Florida.

Mr. Grice is the son of Rev. W. M. Grice of Route 2, Winnfield, and received
his public school education here.  He is well known by all the school boys of
this parish, having competed in several of the tournaments here and at other
places.

To the spectral "border patrol" of drowned and murdered men whose ranks have
been recruited ever since the first pirates scourged off and on Florida's
coasts is added a more substantial outfit making a name for itself as the U.
S. Immigration Service Border Patrol.

The night has eyes, bootleggers and other smugglers are coming to find with a
recent statement that this patrol, just by accident, confiscated $37,293 worth
of contraband during last December.  Looking for alien runners, the patrolmen
frequently run on bootleggers and dope smugglers.

Oscar Grice, a quiet spoken, unassuming chap who wears the new uniform, heads
the squad that does its handicapped best to "snipe" the smugglers from vantage
points of canals, inlets, and other landing points hereabouts.

A mosquito tortured 36 hour watch is nothing to Grice and his mates on a good
"tip" that a runner is due with his human freight.  Sometimes, due to scarcity
of men and inadequate equipment such as hampered the coast guard in its first
liquor patrols, they do nothing but scare the smugglers off.  If scared bad
enough, there is apt to be a multiple murder quickly enacted beneath Florida's
benignant moon.

That is the kine of men the immigration patrol is up against.  The heavy,
almost certain prison term the federal courts mete out horrifies the wild,
freedom loving rover who is fitted to the trade.

"No, we don't expect to catch them all, now," Grice admitted.  "But we will
get them, one by one or two by two and get them faster than new ones take
their places.

"It isn't everyone that can qualify for alien smuggling."  So those who scoff
at the idea of a "thin blue line" keeping Uncle Sam's border airtight can
remember these facts, learned by law enforcement men in fighting other highly
specialized crooks such as yeggs and counterfeiters.

The alien smuggler must be brave yet cautious, lawless yet a master of
discipline, crafty yet 'dumb' enough to fail to realize that he is in a losing
game that does not play as a pursuit, unknown to the law yet bearing a
reputation for success in underworld circles.  Above all, he must have capital
to finance himself and be a peerless small boat skipper.  While capital is
easy enough to get, it requires this unusual blending of 'virtues; to obtain
backing.

Last month, 66 aliens were captured.  How many of these Grice and his men
took, he does not say.  He prefers to leave them guessing.  But department 
figures are available to show that of the contraband mentioned above, $25,000
of it was taken in the southern tip of the state.